2012 brings the Year of the Dragon, and Chinatown is gearing up for a major celebration.
Of the 12 symbols in the Chinese zodiac, the dragon is the most powerful, representing wisdom, strength and superiority. That's fitting, as this year marks the 100th anniversary of Chicago's Chinatown, with the community to celebrate key achievements of the past century.
“It's significant that our centennial year is falling on a dragon year,” said Chi Can To, executive director of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.
Chicago's Chinatown is a busy 30-block commercial area centered on and around Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road in the South Side Armour Square neighborhood. Home to more than 10,000 residents and about 400 businesses and local institutions, Chinatown is considered one of the country's largest and most vibrant ethnic communities.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Chicago Chinatown Celebrates its Centennial
One of our favorite parts about the Sloop is its proximity to Chinatown. It's quite fun to soak in the buzz on a summer day by wandering around Wentworth and Cermak. Sometimes it truly feels like you're in a different world. Anyway, the Daily Herald recently had a nice piece about Chinatown and it's 100th year in Chicago:
celebrating 100 years of brothels, drugs, and some of the dirtiest conditions I have ever seen a resturant have. Bulldoze this area
ReplyDeleteWhere are the brothels, i have been looking for them!
ReplyDeletethey just closed one down at 25th and wentworth and there is another one next to the fire station. For years if you drive down Archer avenue through chinatown and more west you see a sign for a "spa" every half block
ReplyDeletegross
Looking forward to the celebrations! Chinatown is awesome!
ReplyDelete"dirtiest conditions I have ever seen a resturant have"
ReplyDelete= excellent food! Love eating in Chinatown!
Love Chinatown! And not just because the have the best brothels in the city!
ReplyDeleteI only wish our Chinatown was as big as the ones in NYC or SF. They have WAY more brothels than we do!
ReplyDeleteNobody is happier about the dismantling of Ickes more than the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. Ickes proximity to Chinatown was a major reason why our Chinatown never expanded to the size of those in SF, DC, and NYC.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ickes/Hilliard residents loitering all over the Chinatown L station scared many would-be residents and visitors away.
Further, ask any store owner on wentworth about the amount of times he/she chased groups of Ickes residents out of his/her store and you'll get an earful.
ridership at the chinatown red line station is among the fastest growing in the city - up nearly 100% in the past decade.
ReplyDeleteLove Chinatown!
ReplyDeleteIts amazing that public housing is a proven detriment to any neighborhood, chasing out people and tax dollars yet the CHA continues to build more and more all over the city. When will this nonsense finally end? Projects come down, Cermack Chinatown ridership shoots up 100% - we need more of this renewal elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that public housing is an eyesore.....however it always suprizes me the amount of people that are willing to just "tear down" housing projects as if there aren't actual human beings living in there...
ReplyDeleteI AGREE...some people forget those people have a right to live there just like anyone else. its not like those place were built after everyone moved here....u CHOSE to lie there after knowing they were there..
ReplyDeleteHow in the world does anyone have a RIGHT to live perpetually off of the public dime with housing, food stamps, and subsidies while wrecking havoc on your tax-paying neighbors. What a pathetic statement.
ReplyDeleteCOOL IT, ANON.
ReplyDeleteyou only have the right to Life, Liberty, & the PURSUIT of happiness. I didn't see public housing on the list.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, with the destruction of Ickes and the thinning out of the amount of criminals hanging around Cermak from State to Clark, this area will flourish. Too bad about Hiliard not going anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI live in the area and am OK with Hilliard (trust me, it's about 75% safe and growing)... Somehow, we need to get the Alderman or new Alderman to offer TIF Funds to a developer to fully demolish or upgrade the 2 towers on S.Michigan (2000/2100). This is going to happen at some point in the future (5, 10, 20, 50 years from now), so we need to try to make this happen now. More important is for the city to buy the run down retail at State/Cermak to have a clean slate when building the Green Line Station. * I repeat, the area is very safe, but there are still too many folks giving the area an unsafe and unwelcome image who stay with their grandma's apartment (including 45 year old men!) in those buildings and hang out drinking, selling drugs, breaking car windows).
ReplyDeleteHey guys, once in awhile I like to vouch for a place in the area and if you are looking for small plates, asian/japanese food with good drinks and chill atmosphere check out LURE in Chinatown. No I do not work for Lure.. I live in the Motor Row area and we tend to walk over to this spot. They have a cool event going on tonight also .. jazz/hip hop type thing. It's tricky to find, but if you park on Wentworth south of Archer, walk bw the citbank bldg and the new glassy building (Tony Hu's new restaurant) on the sidewalk it is right there.
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